Radiant (Rails) Exporter

gistfile1.rb

  desc "Export specific models to yaml"
  task :export => :environment do
    require 'fileutils'
    begin
      # Returns only the specified models, unless they're not defined
      models = ENV['MODELS'].split(',').map { |m| m.pluralize.classify.constantize }
    rescue
      # Returns all models minus the subclasses of Page
      models = (ActiveRecord::Base.send(:subclasses) - Page.send(:subclasses)).map { |m| m.name.constantize }
    end
    
    hash = {}
    models.each do |model|
      hash[model.name.pluralize] = model.find(:all).inject({}) { |h, record| h[record.id.to_i] = record.attributes; h }
    end
    
    mkdir_p("#{RAILS_ROOT}/db/templates/", :verbose => false)
    target = File.new("#{RAILS_ROOT}/db/templates/export.yml", "w")
    target.write(hash.to_yaml)
    target.close
  end

writing file could be a module method where you pass the file name (specified in the environment)

Radiant::Export should accept an array of constantized and the controller should pass that data (could drop 13-15)

Maybe I'll suggest that.